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OSU Doctor Gives Tips For Best Home Ventilation To Mitigate COVID-19

Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) is rolling out updated guidelines for businesses and organizations to operate in the colder months to come and medical experts are sharing advise on how people can prepare for indoor visits that can still mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

Dr. Mark Weir is director of Ecology Epidemiology and Population Health Program for Ohio State University’s Infectious Disease Institute. Weir says good circulation to reduce aerosols indoors involves three major things: makeup air, air exchange rate, and filtration.

As Weir explains, makeup air is the air being pulled in from outdoors; the air exchange rate is the rate of which it takes old air to move out of the room, and filtration is how that air is filtered.

Watch: Dr. Mark Weir explains how aerosols move indoors.

“We already know about face masks, hand washing and social distancing. Now we're talking about when we're talking about aerosols, there's engineering options for us at this point to be able to work through,” says Weir.

And with those in mind, Gov. Mike DeWine announced indoor visits at long-term care facilities will be allowed starting in October.  

Copyright 2020 The Statehouse News Bureau

Andy Chow is a general assignment state government reporter who focuses on environmental, energy, agriculture, and education-related issues. He started his journalism career as an associate producer with ABC 6/FOX 28 in Columbus before becoming a producer with WBNS 10TV.